Middle Orient

A push by Arab allies of the United States to bring Syria in from the cold highlights the limits of a Chinese-mediated rapprochement between the Middle East’s archrivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The effort spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates, and supported by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, demonstrates that …

The date of the presidential elections has been announced in Turkey. This will probably be the most difficult test for Erdogan. And by internal circumstances – the strengthening of the pro-Western secular-Kemalist opposition (primarily in the person of the Republican People’s Party), a split in the AKP itself, a sharp …

On March 16, 2023, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) published an interview given by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to the Sputnik News Agency (Russia). President Al-Assad said that the BRICS countries have begun distancing themselves from the U.S. and the Western “bloc” and that when an alternative to the …

Turkish and Greek officials will hold a meeting on Wednesday as the two countries seek to revive stalled discussions for dialogue, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry said deputy foreign ministers of Türkiye and Greece, Ambassador Burak Akçapar and Konstantinos Fragkogiannis, respectively, will meet “in the context of …

Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to a renewed focus on the geopolitical importance of the Black Sea. What the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has overlooked is Russia’s use—often in coordination with Iran—of the Caspian Sea to advance its war aims in Ukraine. The Caspian Sea …

Sudani on his first visit to Ankara, stressed the importance of Iraq’s sovereignty in the two countries’ fight against terrorism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Premier Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Tuesday lauded the cooperation between the two countries but reported only limited progress on the contentious bilateral rifts. …

The deal follows the Islamic Republic escalating its attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraq amid the ongoing protests in Iran. Iran and Iraq signed a security agreement on Sunday. The deal follows Iran’s cross-border attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraq and demonstrates the Islamic Republic’s continued sway over its neighbor. …

The move continues a trend reversing aspects of Kurdish autonomy gained since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq For the first time since 2002, oil revenues from Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will be transferred to a bank account supervised by the Iraqi central government, state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) …

Tehran and Riyadh recently agreed to restore diplomatic relations under the auspices of China Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on 15 March that investments in Iran could happen “very quickly” following the signing of a normalization agreement. “There are a lot of opportunities for Saudi investments in Iran. We …

At a time when conflicts are increasingly interconnected, and provide tactical levers to assert pressure elsewhere, the competition between Russia-Iran and Turkiye in Syria and the South Caucasus is destined to overlap. Despite their robust diplomatic relations, Turkiye has been in direct competition with Russia and Iran in two major …